Plenty of people remain spooked by autonomous vehicles (AVs), and some experts caution that AVs won't necessarily make roads safer. However, mounting research suggests self-driving cars crash significantly less often than human drivers, with far fewer injuries.

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are already reducing harm. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems cut pedestrian crashes by 27 percent. A separate IIHS study showed AEB reduced rear-end crashes by 50 percent and related injuries by 56 percent. The Highway Loss Data Institute reported a 13 percent drop in property-damage claims for cars with AEB alone, and up to 39 percent fewer claims when ADAS features like adaptive cruise control and lane-departure warnings were bundled.

At Level 4 autonomy, Waymo's robotaxis have logged 20 million paid rides over 220 million miles. In March, an independent study found Waymo vehicles had 92 percent fewer fatal or serious-injury crashes compared to human drivers in comparable city environments, including 83 percent fewer crashes with airbag deployments and 96 percent fewer injury-causing intersection crashes.

A key question is whether Waymo's fair-weather operations in a few U.S. cities are directly comparable to humans driving in varied conditions. The IIHS is digging deeper, noting that roughly half of human crashes go unreported, which may skew comparisons. Waymo leads in transparency, but not every robotaxi operator voluntarily reports total miles driven.